Trenton,
NJ – Attorney General Anne Milgram today
joined colleagues from throughout the country
in urging Congress to reject proposed legislation
that would impact on a state’s ability
to pursue consumer fraud cases against banks
and other financial institutions.

Milgram, in a letter to New Jersey’s
three members on the House of Representatives’
Financial Services Committee, said an effort
to pre-empt state enforcement of state consumer
protections against financial institutions
covered by the proposed federal Consumer Financial
Protection Agency Act was wrong.

As
written, the proposed CFPA preserves state
authority to enforce state consumer protection
laws and enforce the new proposed law as well,
but a pending amendment to the proposed law
would pre-empt state enforcement. The legislation
is now before the House Financial Services
Committee. Milgram wrote to Reps. E. Scott
Garrett (R-5th Dist.), Leonard Lance (R-7th
Dist.), and John Adler (D-3rd Dist.). Rep.
Melissa Bean (D-IL) is the sponsor of preemption
amendment

“The
breadth of financial fraud occurring in the
current economic climate outstrips the resources
of both the federal and state government —
let alone either by itself,” Milgram
said in her letter to the Congress. “The
joint resources of both federal and state
government are not only desirable but are
necessary if the security of consumers’
financial resources is to be adequately protected.”